SMEs in Telangana to incur losses on two-day power holiday

The Rs 10,000 crore Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Telangana would be forced to incur losses following the two-day weekly power holiday for industries announced by the State Government, according to industry bodies.
The TRS-led Telangana Government yesterday announced that it was increasing the power holiday for industries in the state to two days a week from the present one-day a week to overcome power shortage.
President of Telangana Industrialists' Federation K Sudheer Reddy said the power holiday will have huge impact on SME sector which will force them to cut production and keep the workers idle which would result into huge losses.

He said that the bigger industries will have alternate arrangements such as captive power plants to cope with the grim situation.
"Definitely this is a disturbing factor, especially for SME sector... Production hampers. SME sector in Telangana needs just over 300 mw power to run continuously," Reddy, told PTI.
He claimed the industry bodies have been time and again alerting the previous governments by way of organising protests on the imminent power crisis.

In the recent public meetings, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that the power crisis could continue to haunt the State for the next three years as some of the initiatives being taken by the Government in power sector would yield results fully only then.

Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Shivkumar Rungta said they are requesting the Government to allow industries to purchase power under 'open access' system even below one mega watt power requirement.
"We are baffled by the power holiday announced by the Government. We know the power situation is grim in the state. We have requested the Government to allow us to buy power under open access even for below one mega watt. Currently it is available for one mw or above that," Rungta said.
According to the data available from Telangana Transco website, the total energy supplied from October 1 to 7 in the state stood at 989.5 million units against the requirement of 1121.5 MU, thus creating a deficit of nearly 132 MU.